


Sugar Personified

by flippyspoon



Series: Pour Some Sugar on Me [27]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, flangst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-07 01:26:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16844362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flippyspoon/pseuds/flippyspoon





	Sugar Personified

Steve knew what day Billy’s mom had died because he’d seen a picture of her gravestone when he was at Billy’s house. Billy had watched him paw through this things, as if waiting for a grade on a test, his leg jiggling while he smoked on the bed. The picture was of a younger Billy, fourteen or so, sitting in a squat next to his mom’s grave. Steve thought a friend had likely taken the picture. Billy looked into the camera, unsmiling. He was wearing a faded orange t-shirt, squinting into the sun. His hair was short. The cemetary looked nice anyway. Steve saw the date and figured out the math later. His mother would have died just a few months before the photo was taken.

Steve had seen a bunch of random pictures in a shoebox that day. Another one had stuck out to him too; tiny Billy and his mother sitting on green shag carpeting, a teddy bear in his lap. The bear was an orangey brown and had a white circle on its belly and big round ears and a goofy little smile.

“I had that thing for the longest time,” Billy said tittering. “Old man threw it out with a bunch of my shit from when I was a kid.”

The anniversary of that death was now here. Four years. Steve might have guessed it was coming even if he hadn’t known. Billy had been quiet and dour all week.

Steve wasn’t surprised when Billy came over that night and sat on the corner of Steve’s bed without making a move. He just smoked and sat for a while.

“Hey, I have something for you,” Steve finally said. He got up. He felt stupid suddenly but he’d committed to this. He went to his dresser and opened the top drawer.

_He’s just going to laugh at me._

He decided that if Billy laughed at him today at least he wouldn’t be crying.

“I was in this really weird little shop in ‘Napolis a few weeks ago,” Steve said, his cheeks heating. “Saw this thing that reminded me of you.”

“Mmm?” Billy could not have sounded more disinterested.

Steve took the teddy bear from the drawer and tossed it at Billy. “Think fast.”

Billy caught the bear and stared at it. “Holy shit.”

The bear looked exactly like the bear in the photo but for the lack of a rip in one ear and looking a little less faded.

“Yeah, I dunno. I just remembered that picture and I thought it sucked your dad threw your stuff out. I mean, I know it was little kid stuff but… I don’t know. You probably think it’s stupid but…” He couldn’t seem to stop rambling.

“Gus,” Billy said.

“Huh?”

“The bear’s name was Gus.” He smiled up at Steve. “I guess I thought that was a badass name when I was four. You bought this for me?”

“Well…” Steve stared up at the ceiling and scratched his arm. “Well, I saw it and I didn’t buy it and then I kept thinking about it so I drove back last weekend. I thought maybe…you could use cheering up today.” He sat down next to Billy who looked at the bear, his smoke hanging out of his mouth. “It’s no big deal,” Steve mumbled. “Wasn’t expensive or anything.”

Billy laughed lightly. But it didn’t sound too much like mocking. “Are you sugar personified or something?”

Steve snorted and that and couldn’t think of anything to say except, “Yeah.”

“Gonna give me cavities, baby,” Billy said, wrapping an arm around him.

“You like it?”

“I mean…I felt like shit all week. And today always sucks. But…this is like-” Billy’s voice abruptly cracked wide open and he coughed, wiping his eyes. “Shit, you’re kinda the best, you know? I love you.”

Steve grinned at that. “I love you too.”

“Now gimme some sugar,” Billy said, tugging Steve forward for a kiss.


End file.
